Howdy doody,

As its gone a bit quiet around here, I thought i'd try a inject some conversation and opinion.

As we had topics on fave tracks and not so fave tracks, I thought i'd see what we all like or dislike about each album, starting with Salva Nos. if it proves succesful then we'll continue to the next album.

Released in 1997, on the Virgin label, Salva Nos was the first time we heard from the mysterious sirens known as The Mediaeval Baebes. The 16 tracks that comprised the album were all traditional lyrics put to melody. The album had a winter theme, with a lot of the songs like Gaudete, Coventry Carol and Veni, Veni being traditional Christmas Carols.

There was sparse instrumentation here, with the girls relying on their large vocal ensemble to tell the story.

A successful album, it entered both classical and UK top 40 charts.

What's your opinion on the album? Has it dated at all? What songs do you like/dislike?

Thanks, TM6S, for kicking this one off. I bought the HMV classics version of Slava Nos after getting my hands on a copy of Songs Of The Flesh via the Erotic Print Society. So I saw the Baebes before actually hearing them. Having always been interested in music other than what is on the current radio playlists I was taken by it straight away. I'd heard plenty of Gregorian chant previously but Salva Nos was so much easier to listen to. Looking at the sleeve notes I see that the instrumentation was limited to:
Dorothy Carter - Hurdy-Gurdy & Dulcimer; Nicole Sleet - Tambourine; & Katharine Blake - Recorders. A far cry from the backing on recent CDs & at concerts. One of the things that pleased me most about Salva Nos was it's simplicity & I fell in love with the songs almost immediately. The notes in the sleeve intrigued me as well so I embarked on a quest to find more material by both these lovely voices & others in a similar genre. In short, Salva Nos has acted as a spring board & for which I am very grateful. Cheers, Pat.

I got Salva Nos a little while after I got Worldes Blysse. Like Pat I was struck by the simplicity of the instrumentation, the beautiful arrangements and the selections. I'd heard Gaudete before by Steeleye Span and also This Ay Nicht and the Coventry Carol. The rest were all new. I've always loved Middle English and have a copy of Chaucer on my bedside table. My favorite on the CD is Foweles in the Frith followed by Verbum Caro and Salva Nos. I like all the songs. Except for a couple of songs, this CD, to me at least, is a very quiet, meditative, sacred work. I've listened to other 'medieval' groups whom I like and admire, mainly Anonymous 4. But I find the Baebes more accessible due to their arrangements and the vitality they bring to the songs. I was already sold on the Baebes when I got this CD and would have bought it anyway if it was my first exposure. I still play it when I'm in a quiet mood and need music to help set sacred space.

Thanks Thou Mischievous Sprite for starting this thread.

Toadshade

I find that I can play Salva Nos any time of year..it's a very Christmasy album, but it's also a great album to relax to while laying in the sun, taking a long drive, or while working. I always have music playing while I do my creative work, both energizing and mellow, like Salva Nos.

My favorite songs are Foweles in the Frith, Salva Nos, Verbum Caro, Miri It Is, and So Treiben Wir Den Winter Aus.

Yesterday I listened to Salva Nos &, immediately afterwards, Undrentide which gave a useful comparision to show the progression from simple to a more complex album.

Salva Nos was the first Baebes album I heard, and I agree with toadshade in that it is a quiet, meditative work. Although the Baebes have gone on to create much more complex albums with denser arrangements and experiments, it's good to see the origins of the group with Salva Nos. It's a very classical album, with many arrangements hardly straying from their traditional forms - i.e. The Coventry Carol.

My highights are:

So Treiben Wir Den Winter Aus - Dorothy on Dulcimer and Kat on Recorder, I could listen to this song all day (and have done in the past), beautiful!

Adam Lay Ibounden - I love the drone of Dorothy's Hurdy Gurdy and the words are almost sung in a chant.

Gaudete - first Baebes song I heard (from an excellent Canadian Christmas album) and prompted me to dig deeper into Baebeland. Again this is a very trad arrangement.

Ah Si Mon Moine - Trad French song about a promiscuous maiden trying to bribe a friar to dance with her. Does anyone have her phone number?

I also like Salva Nos and Miri It Is.

I just played the album again and I had forgotten just how good it was. I love the way beautiful voices come mostly out of a pin-drop silence. Paradoxically to my comments, two of my favourite tracks do have some musical accompaniment, Verbum Caro and Ah Si Mon Moine. I feel some affinity for This Ay Nicht (Lyke-Wake Dirge) because I once did The Lyke-Wake Walk across the North Yorkshire Moors, perhaps an odd reason to like a song. Still, I think it's a fantastic album from beginning to end.

In answer to your penultimate question, I think the album is pretty timeless and hasn't dated in any musical sense, after all it is classical. I wonder if the same can be said of some later albums. I don't want to give the wrong impression, I like all the albums but just note that the style of the later albums is different to the earlier ones. Anyway, I should wait until (if and when) The Sprite asks for opinions on other albums before I make any specific comments on them.

Salve Nos was my first introduction to the Baebes and I loved it and them from the first notes of Salve virgo virginum. I love plainsong and this album as others have noted has some of the sparse beauty of chant mixed up with a bit of baebes sparkle on songs like Si mon moine and Salve Nos. The only slight dissapointment for me on the album is Veni Veni which I have always enjoyed singing but here I find it just a tad on the slow side to the detriment of the melody.
It caught my eye in the racks at my local library because of the cover, a woodcut by my artistic hero Burne-Jones, then when I saw the words Mediaeval Baebes I thought, thats three of my favourite things right there, this has got to be good! I still play it a lot now and still love it, I cant see any reason wy it shoud ever sound dated, its a timeless classic.

Well, Salva Nos was not my first Baebes album, I got it a lot later, so it was nice to go back and hear the origins of the band.

I like the sound, the quietness of it, its simple in its structure, very little instruments and even the combined vocals of 12 women don't overpower the gentleness of the album.

It definatley has a winter feel, which of course has a lot to do with the carols and traditional wintertime songs, but even so, it seems to fit in anytime of year, something not all the Baebe albums hold.


The Coventry Carol, one of the first songs of the Baebes I ever heard, i was completely captivated by the sound even walking in a summer meadow during Joust.

Ah Si Mon Moine adds a bit of fun to album, possibly the only uptempo song and its timeless, its always good to hear this song live, with the funny spoken intro.

Miri It Is, Lo Here My Hert and This Ay Nicht add an sinister sound to the album, whilst Foweles In The Frith, Now Springes The Spray and Salve Virgo put the calming, snuggly in a blanket drinking cocoa, feeling into the album.

If I had to pick the song I most dislike, it would be Veni, Veni. It's just too long and gets a bt boring, I've listened to the recent Enya version to see if it was the song, or the version I disliked, and I found it must be the song, as Enya's doesn't excite me either.



Anymore comments for this album, before I start the next thread.......